Two teenagers who filmed themselves urinating into a restaurant’s hotpot broth have been ordered, along with their parents, to apologise and pay a fine of £227,000, Chinese state media has said.
The pair, both 17 and named Wu and Tang, took turns standing on a table and urinating into the dish in a private dining room at a branch of the Haidilao restaurant chain in Shanghai, NBC News, Sky’s US partner, said, quoting state-run broadcaster CCTV News.
One of them posted the video on social media earlier this year, revealing it was an “intentional” act and despite being “fully aware” of potential negative impact, CCTV News said, quoting a decision by Shanghai’s Huangpu District People’s Court.
After the post went viral, Haidilao apologised about the incident and said it had “destroyed and replaced” all the affected utensils.
The chain also refunded more than 4,000 affected dine-in orders and gave each customer extra compensation worth 10 times what they had paid.
Hotpot is a dish of broth kept simmering in a pot by a heat source on the table, served with an array of meats or vegetables dipped into the broth as both flavour and cooking method.
Tang and Wu and their parents were sued in March by two catering companies, described by NBC as “likely linked to Haidilao”.
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The firms demanded a public apology and more than 23 million yuan (£2.4m) in damages for business losses, reputational harm and other related costs.
The court ruled the full refunds were reasonable and directly related to the incident, but said the extra payments lacked legal basis and were deemed a “voluntary business decision,” NBC said, quoting CCTV News.
The teenagers and their parents were ordered to place apologies in designated newspapers to the catering companies, and the parents would pay a fine of 2.2m yuan (£227,000), reports said.
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The court ruling shows that parents risk “heavy penalties” if they fail to supervise their youngsters, China Comment, an influential magazine of the ruling Communist Party, said in an editorial on Monday, NBC reported.
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“This behaviour can no longer be dismissed as a simple prank,” it said, calling it “extreme disregard for others’ rights and a blatant challenge to social norms”.
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Authorities in China have faced food safety issues related to similar incidents recently.
In August, Hong Kong police arrested a 63-year-old man for allegedly adding urine to soft drinks in supermarkets.
